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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27340933">Ramifications</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_SRSunn/pseuds/dragons_SRSunn'>dragons_SRSunn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Insights [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Warriors - Erin Hunter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I didn't want to have to go through everyone dying in it, I wrote this without rereading Crookedstar's Promise, Not all of them are mentioned by name though, and I have never read Mapleshade's Vengeance, because I don't want to have to go through everyone dying in that, i wrote this, some just a tiny bit, that said</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:28:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27340933</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_SRSunn/pseuds/dragons_SRSunn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"But isn't that what the warrior code says?" Stormkit asked quickly...."That you should hunt for the Clan first and everything? So wouldn't that be a good thing?"<br/>Beside him, Featherkit nodded. "Doesn't that mean you would help your Clan the best of all? If you promised that, wouldn't you be the best warrior you could be?"<br/>Crookedstar laughed bitterly. "You'd think so, wouldn't you, little ones? I thought so too. But I was wrong. I was so, so wrong."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Crookedstar warns his grandchildren about their family's eternal enemy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Insights [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877074</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ramifications</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was really written by a friend who was too shy to get her own account.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The old tabby cat lay in his nest in the back of his den. He was breathing shallowly. Each breath was accompanied by a slight wheeze. From time to time he coughed, deep, hacking coughs, and after each bout he could scarcely catch his breath.</p><p>He was ill, and he knew there was a great chance he would not survive his illness. He was old, and on his ninth life. There were more cats he loved in StarClan than out of it. But before he joined them, he had one more duty to do.</p><p>Pawsteps sounded at the entrance of the den, and a gray tom poked his head in. "Crookedstar?" he asked. "You wanted to see them?"</p><p>Crookedstar nodded. "Yes." He sat up in his nest and took a deep breath. "Yes," he meowed again. "Come in."</p><p>The gray tom entered, then paused.</p><p>Behind him, there was a pitter-patter of small paws, which hesitated at the entrance of the den, and some muffled whispering.</p><p>Crookedstar's whiskers twitched. "Come in, both of you," he called.</p><p>The gray tom- Graystripe, who had been Crookedstar's daughter's mate-wrapped his tail around his two kits and ushered them into the den. He caught Crookedstar's eye. "They've never been in here before," he explained apologetically.</p><p>Crookedstar nodded. Then he looked at the kits, Silverstream's kits, all that was left of her, his closest kin in the Clan, and practically all he had left to live for. Which probably wouldn't be for that much longer. Mapleshade was having the last laugh after all.</p><p>He clenched his teeth. <em>No. </em>Mapleshade may have taken every cat he had ever been close to from him, and would celebrate his death, which she had quite possibly had a paw in, and he was resigned to that-but she would <em>not </em>harm these kits. Not if he had anything to say about it.</p><p>"Crookedstar?" Graystripe asked.</p><p>Crookedstar shook himself. He coughed. "Yes," he managed when he had finished coughing. He faced the kits: Stormkit, whose long gray fur was just like his father's, and whose bright amber eyes, the same color as Willowbreeze's, were darting curiously all around Crookedstar's den; and Featherkit, who with her silver fur looked so like Silverstream and Willowbreeze that every time Crookedstar saw her he had to stop himself from saying their names. He couldn't help himself this time. "You look so much like Silverstream," he whispered.</p><p>Featherkit nodded excitedly; she was obviously proud of the fact. "I know! Mistyfoot says I have her personally."</p><p>"Do you mean personality?" the RiverClan leader asked.</p><p>The she-kit nodded. "That's what I meant."</p><p>"You certainly do," Graystripe murmured.</p><p>The mention of Mistyfoot brought up something else in Crookedstar's mind. "Mistyfoot will be your mentor," he told Featherkit.</p><p>She gasped. "Really?"</p><p>"Really," Crookedstar told her.</p><p>"Yay!" she cried, and suddenly ran forward and nuzzled Crookedstar's fur. Graystripe took a pace forward, then stopped when he saw that Crookedstar was all right with the close contact, despite his illness.</p><p>His illness...Crookedstar stood up and staggered back a few paces, then sat back down heavily. He didn't want the kits to catch greencough from him. It would be so like Mapleshade, he thought, to have the kits catch his dying illness from him. She would love that.</p><p>Featherkit looked up at him. "Thank you," she mewed, Silverstream's eyes peering out from her small face. "I'm glad Mistyfoot will be will be my mentor. I like her. She's so nice. She comes and plays with us all the time. I was worried I might get somebody mean, like Blackclaw."</p><p>"Don't speak about your Clanmate like that," Graystripe scolded. "He's strict, that's all."</p><p>"Doesn't strict mean mean?" Stormkit piped up.</p><p>"No it does <em>not</em>," Graystripe muttered, but there was affection in his gaze.</p><p>Crookedstar had used to look at Silverstream in that same way. Apparently, a father's love for his kits was the same no matter what Clan he was born in.</p><p>He wondered, suddenly, what Appledusk had felt for his and Mapleshade's kits.</p><p>"What about me?" Stormkit wanted to know. "Did you pick my mentor yet too?"</p><p>"I did," Crookedstar confirmed. "Your mentor will by Stonefur, Mistyfoot's brother."</p><p>"That's great!" Stormkit bounded over to his sister. "Stonefur's a great warrior! He and Mistyfoot are littermates, just like us," he told Featherkit, "so we'll be able to train together all the time! It'll be so fun!"</p><p>"You've already chosen their mentors?" Graystripe asked Crookedstar. "But they won't be apprenticed for nearly two moons..."</p><p>Crookedstar nodded. "I have. I've already spoken to both Stonefur and Mistyfoot, and they agree. I've spoken to Leopardfur too, and she will abide by my choice, when...." He looked at the kits, who were avidly following the conversation between the two older cats. "Just in case," he finished instead.</p><p>"You'll recover," Graystripe meowed, in a tone that sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well as Crookedstar.</p><p>Crookedstar sighed. His whiskers ruffled. "Possibly. But probably not. In any case, I should..." He trailed off as a thought struck him. Should he tell Stonefur and Mistyfoot what he was going to tell Featherkit and Stormkit? They'd probably shrug off his warning as the delusions of a half-mad, ill cat-after all, warriors weren't nearly as impressionable as kits-but it didn't matter, as long as they at least knew the danger they could be in, even if they thought it was nothing but a nursery tale, so they might protect themselves. They were Appledusk's kin too, after all. Oakheart's kits-which was another reason why he had decided on them to be mentors for Silverstream's kits. They could be trusted to treat Featherkit and Stormkit fairly, and not to discriminate against them because of their parentage.</p><p>After all, they were half-Clan themselves.</p><p>Not that they knew that. No cat living(he felt a pang as he thought of Oakheart)knew that, besides for himself and Bluestar, although he had always suspected that Graypool had figured it out. She'd been a smart cat, just like her sister. But Mistyfoot and Stonefur themselves had never suspected a thing-they had been so young when they had been brought to RiverClan that their memories of ThunderClan had faded into the general blur of early kithood.</p><p>Oakheart and Graypool-who, after all, had herself been half WindClan-had raised both of them to be noble, fair-minded cats. And they were kin to Featherkit and Stormkit, after all. He could trust them to be good mentors to them. They would always do what was right.</p><p><em>No, </em>he decided, reverting back to his original train of thought. Mistyfoot and Stonefur were full warriors now. Mistyfoot even had kits of her own. If Mapleshade had been going to target them, she would have done so long before now. Mapleshade hated all of Appledusk's descendants equally, but she seemed to have a special hatred for Crookedstar. After all, Oakheart was Appledusk's descendant too, and his kits still lived(although there'd been a third kit who'd disappeared, hadn't there?). If Mapleshade came after anyone, it would be Silverstream's kits. He decided to only tell his story to Featherkit and Stormkit, although if he had known what Stonefur's fate would be, or that of most of Mistyfoot's kits, he would most likely have rethought his decision, but he did not know, to his later regret.</p><p>"Crookedstar?" Graystripe's voice broke through Crookedstar's reverie. "Did you call us in here so you could tell Stormkit and Featherkit who their mentors would be?" Apparently, he'd decided to discuss Crookedstar's pending mortality another time, when the kits weren't around to listen to every word. "Is that what you wanted to tell them?"</p><p>"No," Crookedstar rasped. He stretched, bones creaking under his pelt. He coughed, and looked Featherkit and Stormkit in the eye. "I need to tell you something. It is very important that you hear this. It does not matter if you believe me or not-it just matters that you listen, and remember, so that if the time comes you will be forewarned with this knowledge. Will you listen?"</p><p>They both nodded.</p><p>Then Featherkit whispered, "What does forewarned mean?"</p><p>"It means warned before!" Stormkit informed her proudly. "Right, Graystripe? I learned that word two sunrises ago!"</p><p>"It does," Graystripe told him. "You're a smart kit, Stormkit. Crookedstar, what in the name of StarClan are you telling them already? If you mean that some mouse-brains will look down on them because they're half-Clan, they know that already."</p><p>Before Crookedstar could answer, Featherkit asked, "What are we being warned before about?" Her blue eyes were wide, and her whiskers were trembling. He could see he was scaring her. But she had to be scared; both of them did. If they weren't, they would pay barely any heed to his warning and Mapleshade would destroy their lives as thoroughly as she had destroyed his.  </p><p>Crookedstar bent his head so he could look into Featherkit's eyes. "You will see. You must listen, and then you can go play. But first, listen to what I have to tell you. All right?"</p><p>Featherkit nodded. The shape of her face, the color of her eyes, the patterns on her pelt, even the way she arranged her paws when she sat-she could have been Silverstream, waking him up after a nightmare so he could reassure her that the monsters in bad dreams weren't real(except for the ones that were).</p><p>Crookedstar inhaled sharply and looked at Graystripe. "You should hear this, too."                                                                                                                                      Graystripe wasn't descended from Appledusk, but the mates of those who were sometimes seemed to have it as bad as if they were blood relatives. Rainflower and Willowbreeze were dead, and Bluestar...from what Crookedstar could remember, she had gone through nearly as much as he had. Both her mother and her sister had died young. And she had lost her mate and kits while they were <em>still living</em>, which in a way was even worse that what he had gone through. At least he could remember Willowbreeze and Willowkit and Minnowkit in peace(mostly). Bluestar had scarcely been able to speak to Oakheart, and Mistyfoot and Stonefur didn't even know she was their mother. She had hardly dared to speak to them at Gatherings, for fear that a long-buried memory might surface, or that she would give something away. At Gatherings, Crookedstar had always made a point of mentioning to her how Oakheart's kits were doing. The pain in her eyes as she gazed across the clearing at her kits, lost to her while they still lived, had rivaled his own, even after the death of Silverstream. And there'd been that third kit, the one who'd disappeared....</p><p>"I was going to stay anyway," Graystripe informed Crookedstar.</p><p>Crookedstar whiskers twitched. "You're a good father, Graystripe."</p><p>Graystripe blinked. "Thank you. I try." He sighed. "I just wish..."</p><p>Crookedstar nodded. Then he took a deep breath(as deep as he was able to, anyway) and faced the kits. "When I was a kit, younger than you are now, my brother Oakheart and I went to Sunningrocks."</p><p>"Hey!" Stormkit interrupted. "How come you were able to go to Sunningrocks if kits can't leave the camp?" His narrowed amber eyes looked so much like Willowbreeze's that Crookedstar caught his breath.</p><p>"Stormkit!" Graystripe chided. "Don't interrupt!"</p><p>"But how come they were allowed to go to Sunningrocks?" the gray tom-kit wanted to know. "I want to go to Sunningrocks!"</p><p>"Well, he's the leader," Featherkit suggested. "And Oakheart used to be the deputy. They could probably leave the camp whenever they wanted."</p><p>"Yeah, but they weren't leader and deputy <em>then</em>," Stormkit pointed out.</p><p>Graystripe was suppressing his laughter. To his surprise, Crookedstar realized he was too. He hadn't felt the urge to laugh in a while.   </p><p>"Let me rephrase," he amended. "When I was younger than you are now, my brother Oakheart and I <em>snuck out of camp without permission </em>and went to Sunningrocks."</p><p>"Oh." Stormkit looked mollified. "That makes sense."</p><p>Graystripe brushed Stormkit's side with his tail. He looked at Crookedstar. "You were saying..."</p><p>"Oakheart and I went to Sunningrocks," Crookedstar continued. "I fell off the side and broke my jaw."</p><p>The kits gasped. Stormkit in paricular looked as though he was rethinking his plans to go to Sunningrocks.</p><p>Graystripe looked as though he was interested but trying not to show it so as not to be rude. Crookedstar knew that his broken jaw had been the subject of much discussion and rumors in the other Clans, and even somewhat in his own.</p><p>"The pain...was tremendous," he meowed softly, staring into the distance as he relived the terror and agony of that fateful day. </p><p>"I recovered," he told the kits, who were staring at him, wide-eyed. "But I was in the medicine den for a very long time, and when I finally got out, my jaw was as you see it now. Twisted. Lopsided. <em>Crooked. </em>I had to relearn how to eat, to drink, to speak. Nearly the entire Clan, including me, despaired of my ever becoming a warrior. Worst of all-" He hesitated, then decided to continue, even though he didn't like to speak about this topic. He must be completely honest, so that they understood the whole story.              "Worst of all, my mother, Rainflower, rejected me. She could not love a kit as disfigured as I was. She was even the one who petitioned Hailstar to rename me Crookedkit."</p><p>He spoke in even, measured tones that did a good job of masking his true feelings, but beneath it all, the pain was still there. Every cat longs for his or her mother's love.</p><p>"But...why?" Featherkit asked.</p><p>Crookedstar twitched. "Why..."</p><p>Graystripe made a movement as though to stop Featherkit from continuing, but Crookedstar shook his head at him. "Let her speak."</p><p>"Why didn't she like you anymore?" Featherkit asked, echoing the question that had burned inside Crookedstar for seasons upon seasons. "Mosspelt says it's not the outside but the inside that counts. And Mistyfoot and Graystripe say Silverstream would have loved us no matter what. I thought that's what mothers are supposed to do. So why didn't yours love you anymore?" Featherkit was wise beyond her moons.</p><p>Crookedstar sighed heavily. "I wish I knew, little one," he whispered, half to himself. "I wish I knew."</p><p>For a moment the only sound in the den was the breathing of the four cats.</p><p>Then Stormkit said, "You said your name got changed to Crookedkit, right?"</p><p>"It did," Crookedstar confirmed. He has a suspicion where this was going. Stormkit had always been the more inquisitive of the two kits. It was almost poetic that he would be the one asking this, really.</p><p>"So what was your name before?" Stormkit wanted to know.</p><p>"Stormkit," Crookedstar told him.</p><p>"What?" Stormkit asked, looking confused.</p><p>"No, may name was Stormkit," Crookedstar explained. He began coughing.</p><p>"<em>Really?</em>" Stormkit gasped.</p><p>Crookedstar hadn't caught enough of his breath to answer, so he nodded.</p><p>"Oh wow!" Stormkit began to run around the den, weaving around his sister and his father. "I have the same name as you! That's so cool!" He and Featherkit began to squeak excitedly to each other.</p><p>Graystripe watched them, looking faintly stunned. "Your name was Stormkit? I never knew...."</p><p>"You didn't?" Crookedstar asked, surprised. "Why'd you name him Stormkit, then?"</p><p>"It was Silverstream's idea. She knew, I suppose...she never got a chance to tell me...." For a moment Graystripe seemed to tremble. "She said she wanted one of our kits to be Stormkit and another one to be Featherkit and if there were more kits I would get to name them. If it hadn't been for that, I would have named Featherkit after Silverstream, but this was what she had wanted..." He seemed to be staring into the distance, at something Crookedstar couldn't see. </p><p>"Why did she want to name her Featherkit?" Crookedstar asked quietly.</p><p>"We were watching the sunset once." Graystripe spoke softly, as if not to disturb the image he was seeing in his mind's eye. "I'd caught a bird, and we were sharing it. Its feathers were floating up around us. The sun was behind them; they looked so dark against it, so beautiful, so otherworldly...Silverstream said she wanted her kit to be named after such beauty."</p><p>It was so like Silverstream, Crookedstar thought, to notice the small bits of beauty in life.</p><p>He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Graystripe agreed, "Yes, it was."</p><p>Crookedstar and Graystripe caught each other's eye for a moment. Then they looked away at the same time, Graystripe staring down at the kits and taking a deep breath, his tail trembling, while Crookedstar clenched his teeth and inhaled three times before speaking again. "Stormkit, Featherkit, I have more to tell you."</p><p>"Oh." Featherkit's ears twitched. "So that wasn't just the story of how you hurt your jaw? There's more?"</p><p>"Yes," Crookedstar told her.</p><p>"Will it be scary?" </p><p>"A little." <em>A lot.</em></p><p>"I'll protect you!" Stormkit assured his sister. He puffed out his chest and strutted back and forth in front of her.</p><p>Graystripe purred, but he gave Crookedstar a look that said, <em>You may be Clan leader and their kin, but I am their father, and you've frightened them enough for one day.</em></p><p>Crookedstar didn't purr, nor did he return Graystripe's look. They needed to hear this. He looked at the kits and, continuing straight from where he'd left off, meowed, "And then one night, I had a dream."</p><p>"Like, a medicine-cat dream, or just a normal dream?" Featherkit, who had always been very perceptive and astute for her age, asked.</p><p>Crookedstar sighed heavily. "It was not a normal dream."</p><p>"So it was a StarClan dream!" Featherkit exclaimed triumphantly.</p><p>Crookedstar wheezed. "So I believed," he said when he got his breath back. He glanced up at the roof of the den. "In my dream, I saw a cat. She told me that her name was Mapleshade."</p><p>Graystripe started.</p><p>"You know the name?" Crookedstar asked.</p><p>Graystripe nodded. "There are stories about her in ThunderClan. But I always thought they were just that-stories."</p><p>"Yes," Crookedstar realized. "ThunderClan would have stories about her. And most stories," he added, "have a grain of truth."</p><p>"Mapleshade told me," Crookedstar continued, "that she could help me. She said she could train me to be stronger, faster, better than my Clanmates. She said I could be a great leader. But on one condition."</p><p>"What was it?" Graystripe asked, his voice hushed. Crookedstar noted that he seemed as eager to find out what happened next as Featherkit and Stormkit did.</p><p>"I had to promise," Crookedstar whispered, "to be loyal to my Clan above all else. To put my Clan above everything. Her exact words were, 'You must promise me that you will be loyal to your Clan above all other things. What you want for yourself is nothing compared to the needs of your Clan. Nothing, remember? Do you make that promise?' And, fool that I was-" Despite himself, Crookedstar's voice trembled slightly-"I agreed."</p><p>"But-" Stormkit started, then stopped.</p><p>"What?" Crookedstar asked gently.</p><p>"But isn't that what the warrior code says?" Stormkit asked quickly, as if afraid he might be told off for misunderstanding. "That you should hunt for the Clan first and everything? So wouldn't that be a good thing?"</p><p>Beside him, Featherkit nodded. "Doesn't that mean you would help your Clan the best of all? If you promised that, wouldn't you be the best warrior you could be?"</p><p>Crookedstar laughed bitterly. "You'd think so, wouldn't you, little ones? I thought so too. But I was wrong. I was so, so wrong."</p><p>"What I did not realize," he went on quietly, as the kits and Graystripe strained to hear him, "what Mapleshade did not <em>intend </em>me to realize, was that when she said I must be loyal to my Clan above all other things, she truly meant that-to put my Clan above all else, at the expense of every cat I was close to, every cat I ever loved."</p><p>For a moment, there was a horrified silence in the den. Graystripe, Stormkit, and Featherkit all moved closer to each other.</p><p>"But how..." Graystripe started. He trailed off.</p><p>"My mother, Rainflower." At first Crookedstar didn't seem to be answering Graystripe's question. "We were chasing a dog to the river; we didn't realize she was there. The dog knocked her over; she fell and hit her head on a rock. I was going to help her, but Mapleshade told me...she told me I had promised to be loyal to my Clan above all else. <em>Above all else. </em>Even my mother. I was beholden to my promise. So I went to help my Clan fight the dog, and Rainflower died.</p><p>"But I thought she didn't love you anymore." Stormkit's voice echoed in the den.</p><p>Graystripe winced.</p><p>Crookedstar gazed sadly at the kit, who looked like his father but with Willowbreeze's eyes. "But i loved her. And that was the important thing."</p><p>Crookedstar stared at the kits without quite seeing them. "My mother was not the only cat to be harmed because of my promise. Willowbreeze-my mate-was captured by Twolegs. Hailstar died, and the responsibility for the entire Clan was put on by shoulders. Willowbreeze and Willowkit and Minnowkit all died of greencough. Silverstream's sisters," he added in response to the kits' questioning looks. "Oakheart died at Sunningrocks. And Silverstream...." For a moment, he couldn't speak.</p><p>The kits' eyes were wide, as if they were just beginning to comprehend the full import of what he was trying to tell them. <em>Good, </em>he thought.</p><p>"But how could she have..." Graystripe tried. "How could it have been...I mean, if it was time for them to join StarClan, it was," he finished, somewhat clumsily, but Crookedstar forgave him that.</p><p>The RiverClan leader stared at the cat who had been his daughter's mate in anguish. "They say that it is StarClan who decides when a cat's time on this earth is done," he whispered, daring to voice his most secret fear, "but who is to say that the Place of No Stars does not have the same power?"</p><p>Graystripe's eyes widened. Perhaps subconsciously, he unsheathed his claws.</p><p>"The Place of No Stars?" Featherkit squeaked.</p><p>Crookedstar met her gaze. "The Place of No Stars. The Dark Forest. The opposite of StarClan, where evil cats go when they die."</p><p>Featherkit's fur fluffed. Stormkit did not look much braver.</p><p>"Crookedstar," Graystripe started. "I really think-"</p><p>Crookedstar met his gaze firmly. "<em>They need to hear this,</em>" he growled, and the vehemence in his voice surprised even him.</p><p>Graystripe looked away and curled his tail around his kits. He moved behind them, so that they could lean against him, but he still kept an eye on Crookedstar.</p><p>Crookedstar took a deep breath; the next part of his story was not that much easier to tell. "After Willowbreeze died, and Willowkit and Minnowkit, I confronted Mapleshade. I told her I took back my promise, that no promise was worth this. I asked her why she would do this to me. I asked her what I had ever done to her. And she told me..."</p><p>He gritted his teeth against the coughing fit that threatened to overwhelm him. He waited until it had passed, then continued. "Some of this Mapleshade told me herself. Other parts I heard from the elders, when I asked them for the oldest stories they knew. As far as I know, all of it is true." He took a deep breath.</p><p>"In life, Mapleshade was a warrior of ThunderClan, and she fell in love with a RiverClan warrior named Appledusk."</p><p>"Like Father and Silverstream!" Stormkit announced, and even Graystripe looked startled at the similarities.</p><p>Crookedstar sighed. "Somewhat. They had kits. But when the ThunderClan leader discovered that Mapleshade had broken the warrior code by becoming mates with a cat from another Clan, and that the kits were half-Clan, he exiled them."</p><p>The kits looked stunned. Even Graystripe, who had apparently heard bits and pieces of this story before, looked surprised.</p><p>"But it wasn't the kits' fault," Featherkit whispered.</p><p>"No," Crookedstar agreed. "It wasn't." He had to wonder, what had the ThunderClan leader been thinking? If he had known what the result of his actions would be, would he have acted differently? "I suppose ThunderClan thought that they would find shelter in RiverClan. But that was not the case."</p><p>A rustle outside the den made them all jump.</p><p>Graystripe poked his head out. "Just the wind," he assured them. He curled himself around his kits.</p><p>"Mapleshade took her kits to RiverClan territory," Crookedstar continued. "But when they crossed the river, something went wrong-I don't know if the river flooded, or if it was raining, or if they just fell off the stepping-stones, but Mapleshade's kits all drowned."</p><p>Stormkit, Featherkit, and even Graystripe looked horrified.</p><p>"Didn't they know how to swim?" Stormkit whispered.</p><p>"They were raised in ThunderClan," Crookedstar pointed out. "And even if they did know how to swim, the river is rough. The strongest warrior is unable to stand against the strength of the river. A small kit wouldn't have had a chance."</p><p>"Crookedstar." Graystripe's ears twitched. "I know you said they need to know this, but with all due respect, why? There's no need for you to scare them like this."</p><p>Crookedstar closed his eyes briefly. "I'm sorry, but they do need to know this. I would have wanted to wait until they were a little older, but I probably won't live until then, and I missed tell them this, before it is too late. You will see why soon."</p><p>Graystripe hesitated, then nodded.</p><p>Crookedstar continued. "Mapleshade survived and made her way to RiverClan, but they refused her. Appledusk rejected her. He blamed her for the death of their kits. He had a new mate, a RiverClan she-cat. He had moved on. And so Mapleshade was left to wander the forest as a rogue."</p><p>He inhaled. "Mapleshade promised-" the word still made him wince-"to wreak vengeance upon every cat who had wronged her, every cat who was somehow to blame for the death of her kits."</p><p>"I've heard stories," Graystripe meowed slowly. "She killed ou-the ThunderClan medicine cat, didn't she?"</p><p>"She did," Crookedstar confirmed. "She blamed him because he was the one who had told the ThunderClan leader that her kits were half-Clan in the first place." He sighed. "The last cat she killed was Appledusk himself."</p><p>"But they were mates!" Stormkit squeaked in surprise.</p><p>Crookedstar met his eyes, Willowbreeze's eyes. "Not anymore. He rejected her, remember. He had taken a new mate. He blamed her. Mapleshade hated him as much as any of the other cats he blamed, even more so." He stopped himself before he could admit something else-that in other circumstances, he could almost pity her.</p><p>"Mapleshade died then as well," he continued. "But as she died, she vowed revenge upon Appledusk and all his kin, forever."</p><p>As Crookedstar finished his story there was whisker-drop silence in his den.</p><p>Finally Graystripe said, "But he died," almost hopefully, it seemed. Perhaps he was figuring out where Crookedstar was going with this.</p><p>"Yes," Crookedstar agreed. "He died. But his new mate was expecting their kits when he died. She had a daughter. This daughter had a son. And this son was my father, Shellheart."</p><p>Graystripe inhaled sharply. "So you mean..."</p><p>Stormkit's and Featherkit's eyes were wider than ever, as if they were finally fully understanding what he was telling them. <em>They have to,</em> Crookedstar thought. <em>They have to</em>. Everything he had gone through would almost be worth it if it meant that the next generation of his family would be forewarned.</p><p>He leaned closer to them, trying to will them to understand. "I am kin to Appledusk. That is why Mapleshade targeted me. You are my daughter's kits, and so you are kin to Appledusk as well." He gazed at them, his green eyes meeting their blue and amber ones. "Beware of strange dreams. Whatever she says, whatever she promises you, don't listen to her. Tell your kits, and their kits, and their kits. Don't fall into the same trap I did. Beware of Mapleshade."</p>
<hr/><p>Stormfur awoke. His heart was pounding.</p><p>He took a deep breath, listening to the thundering of the waterfall nearby. It soothed him.</p><p>He was the only cat awake; the Tribe of Rushing Water had no need to post a guard. The cave, the waterfall, the very mountains themselves protected them. Still, Stormfur would have appreciated another cat to talk to, if only to clear his mind.</p><p>He wished he could speak to Feathertail. He missed her. He wondered what she would say.</p><p>He had told Crookedstar's story to his kits, adding at the end that if they had any dreams like that, to tell him and Stoneteller immediately. He wasn't sure whether they believed the story was true or not. But as Crookedstar had said, it did not matter if they believed it or not-it just mattered that they knew the story, so they would be forewarned if the need ever came.</p><p>But Mapleshade had never visited Stormfur, nor Feathertail nor any of his kits as far as he knew. That was a good thing. Perhaps Mapleshade had faded forever into the shadows of the Dark Forest.</p><p>But sometimes, when he saw a strange shadow, when he heard an unexplained noise, when he had nightmares of Feathertail or Stonefur, when he looked at Pine and Lark and Breeze and Feather and loved them and was proud of them and wished only good for them as much as Graystripe must have loved and been proud of and wished only good for him and Feathertail-whenever any of these happened, Crookedstar's last warning to him and Feathertail echoed in the back of his mind.</p><p>
  <em>Beware of Mapleshade....</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I headcanon that Mapleshade was involved in the deaths of Appledusk's kin even outside Crookedstar's Promise. After all, they do seem to have a higher fatality rate than other cats. Take Stonefur, for example-we know Mapleshade spoke to Tigerstar in his dreams. She could have given him the idea to tell him to kill Feathertail and Stormfur. Whether or not he refused, either way, at least one descendant of Appledusk would die, which is basically Mapleshade's main goal in life. Well. Death.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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